Planning your trip

Who We Are

With years of experience to our names, we have an eye for quirk and would prefer to offer you intelligent simplicity over impersonal luxury.
We travel extensively in search of what’s really worth doing, rather than just what makes a good photograph.

A Kerala Homestay; home cooking and the best of life in Kerala

1/5Beyond the curtain there's a warm welcome and fascinating insight into local life at a homestay

2/5The traditionally furnished verandah at Olavipe - a popular place for a G&T and a chat

3/5Dishes made to family recipes are a delicious part of the Kerala homestay experience

4/5The house boatman at Philip Kutty's Farm will be happy to paddle you along the Backwaters

5/5A homestay with a difference, Tranquil has a lovely swimming pool

A homestay offers the chance to experience a side of India that’s only possible by staying with a family. It’s a concept that originated in Kerala and an opportunity not to be missed.

Banish all thoughts of what it’s like to stay with your in-laws, homestay families are incredibly hospitable and genuinely happy to be looking after their guests. The hosts are often among the most respected families in the community and many will offer to show you round their town or village, farm or estate sharing their local knowledge and providing a fascinating insight into everyday life that you couldn’t find any other way. Without exception they will be pleased to make recommendations of great things to do and may even use their influence to give you access to special events or places otherwise closed to visitors.

In Kerala your homestay could be a plantation bungalow, backwater hideaway or restored colonial mansion. At some you’ll find just one or two guest rooms in the family house, but we know that not everyone enjoys that level of intimacy, so we can suggest others with detached cottages for a smidgeon more independence. Rooms are homely, with en-suite shower rooms and come decorated in a variety of styles. Usually the candlewick bedspreads have been removed and the nicnacks tidied away, but you might still find a television lurking beneath a lace-trimmed cover in the family sitting room.

Your hosts invariably know when to grab you for a chat or leave you to your own devices, but meal times are usually taken together and are a social occasion to relish. Over pre-dinner drinks you’ll find out more about the family, enjoy the local gossip, or perhaps bandy words about politics before tucking into authentic Indian food at its very best – home cooked. A homestay really is a home away from home.

915m (3000 ft) high up in the Western Ghats Tranquil is hidden among the bushes and trees of Kappamudi Estate, a 160 hectare (400 acre) working coffee plantation near Sulthan’s Battery in the Wayanad district of north Kerala. Your hosts are Victor, Jini, family and dogs who welcome you to their 1930’s planters bungalow. With the addition of modern amenities and a swimming pool, Tranquil is somewhere between a homestay and small hotel.
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More than 120 years old, Olavipe has been in Antony’s family for six generations. Having retired 10 years ago (he was once head of security in Rajiv Gandhi’s government) he returned home and with his wife Rema and brother Jacob now spends much of his time looking after house guests. They are the perfect hosts making visitors feel entirely at home and like an old friend staying as a house guest. They are attentive, but not intrusive.
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All the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. When you pay you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please ask for it and check to ensure that everything you booked (flights, hotels and other services) is listed on it. Please see our booking conditions for further information or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.atol.org.uk/ATOLCertificate